Heart-break for Deccan in Hyderabad

William Perkins top scored with 38 and Kieron Polard provided a late charge as Trinidad & Tobago huffed and puffed to 149 for seven against Deccan Chargers in a crucial encounter for both sides.

Sent in to bat, the Caribbean batsmen took some time to settle on the pitch which offered some resistance to paceman initially.. Edwards made a good start by trapping Lendl Simmons (7) in the first ball of his second over.The next man in, left-handed Darren Bravo also struggled against a charged up Edwards for the first few balls before playing an exquisite cover drive for four.

RP Singh, though, struggled with his run-up and bowled three consecutive no-balls, resulting in free-hits even though the batsmen could not make the most of those.

Perkins played a good innings of 38 came off 32 balls with the help of six hits to the fence, welcoming cott Styris with consecutive boundaries.

However, Deccan hit back through T Suman who got Darren Bravo caught and bowled when he had made just 14.

More shock was in store for Trinidad & Tobago as two balls later a direct throw by Andrew Symonds from mid-off found rival skipper Daren Ganga, trying to steal a run, short of crease.

Gilchrist shuffled his bowlers and by the ninth over he had used six different bowlers. He recalled Edwards for his second spell and the paceman responded with the wicket of Perkins, trapping him in front.

However, Polard infused life into the Trinidad & Tobago innings by hitting Ojha and Suman for mighty sixes in consecutive overs. He uncorked some lusty shots towards the fag end to lift his side to a competitive total, hitting four sixes in his crucial 31-run cameo off just 14 balls.

He did not even spare Edwards, hitting him for a flat six, before being bowled by the same bowler, who made amends after being barred from bowling in the last match for firing two beamers, by taking three wickets, including one that of Polard. Eventually Trinidad and Tobago ended up with a competitive 149/7. Keeping in mind the fact that previous total of 150-odd had proved tough to chase throughout the tournament, they would have been reasonably happy with the total, even though the pitch for the match was better for batting than most of the ones seen in the tournament.

Deccan's started off in a wobbly fashion when VVS Laxman was trapped lbw by Dwayne Bravo in the second over. They soon suffered a double blow when debutant Abhinav Kumar fell in Bravo's next over, while Andrew Symonds was run-out in a mix-up with Gilchrist. However, Gilchrist had taken it upon himself to end Hyderabad's jinx at their home venue, and he powered away in his inimitable style. In partenership with Rohit Kumar he put the chase back on track, blazing to fifty off just 31 balls. However, disaster struck for Hyderabad when Kieron Pollard plucked a blinder of a catch at deep mid-wicket to a fierce pull from Gilchrist. Gilchrist had made 51 off 36 balls and his wicket put the match in balance at 85/4 in 11.5 overs. But with Gilchrist gone, Hyderabad seemed to fold, and Rohit Sharma fell immediately after to leave them 86/5 in 12.1 overs. Venugopal Rao, who had earlier dropped a fairly simple chance in the outfield, displayed an array of attacking shots, bringing Hyderabad closer to victory. Scott Styris was run-out in a mix-up with Rao, but the killer blow for Hyderabad came when Rao himself fell, playing one shot too many for 30 off 19 balls. This left Hyderabad at 137/7, requiring 13 runs off the final 12 balls. The pressure of the chase though got to the batsmen, and no one could connect to score the vital boundary that would have eased the pressure and allowed the batsmen to get to the target in singles. Dwayne Bravo came back to bowl a splendid final over, conceding just four runs, whle RP Singh and Fidel Edwards ran themselves out. T Suman was left with too big an ask for so young and inexperienced a man, and Hyderabad ended up heart-breakingly close to the target, finishing on 146/9 - just 3 runs adrift of the target. Bravo ended up with figures of 3/24 off his four overs, proving just how valuable he was yet again.

It was the second narrow loss they experienced in the tournament, and unfortunately for them, it meant that they were eliminated, while the jinx of them never winning a home game continued.